1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an automated analysis system and, more particularly, to an automated mass spectrometer analysis system finding particular utility, though not limited to, in automatically analyzing samples in biological matrices and providing an indication of identified sample components and their abundances.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The increasing realization of the molecular origin of health disease has led to a rapid expansion of our knowledge regarding body metabolism. Therefore, development of methods for the assay of a wide variety of complex organic compounds in biological matrices, such as blood or urine, is of interest to the clinical chemist. Presently, the relatively high cost per analysis and low sample throughput have made such analyses, in general, prohibitive for routine work.
For an analysis system to be of use to the biomedical researcher and clinical chemist it must meet a number of requirements. To be justified economically the system should operate automatically with a high degree of reliability, requiring minimum operator attention or maintenance, and have a high sample throughput, so that the cost per analysis can be held to a minimum. The system should be able to operate with very small sample volumes, be capable of determining a large number of compounds at very low level of concentration simultaneously, to conserve both time and sample. Although various systems for automatically or semi-automatically analyzing samples, present in blood or urine, have been proposed, all of them are in their early stages of development and to date do not meet the above enumerated requirements. Prior art systems which are in the early stages of development include the combination of a gas or liquid chromatograph, a mass spectrometer and a data processor, e.g., a computer. Among the problems which the prior art has not solved is the simultaneous conversion of the complete mass spectrometer output over a wide range of masses, into signals which the computer can use to provide an indication of the analyzed sample components and their abundances. Also, the automatic processing of samples, their successive introduction into a mass spectrometer and the overall control of such a system, so that it can operate automatically with minimum operator intervention and with a high degree of reliability have not been solved.